PLATE I 

 TREE CREEPER. Cert hi a familiar is 



May %th, 1897. Monteith. The large beech depicted in this Plate has been 

 the nesting-site of a pair of Creepers as long as I can remember. The first 

 Creeper's egg which ever graced my collection was taken from this very 

 same situation in May 1881, and there has been a nest in this tree every 

 year since. 



The cavity in which the nest is placed is just below a branch growing 

 out of the bole of the tree not more than four feet from the ground ; the nest 

 is in rather the same sort of position in which one would expect to find a 

 Robin's nest, as it is quite open, and only two or three inches from the lip of 

 the cavity. It is nearly always beautifully edged with very fine birch twigs, 

 which must be carried some distance, as there are no birches anywhere very 

 near ; it is lined with fine strips of inside bark and a good many feathers. 

 As often as I have examined the eggs in this nest I have found them of the 

 same type, very richly spotted with rich dark reddish brown, the markings 

 being collected into a very conspicuous zone round the larger end of the egg ; 

 one egg in the clutch is usually spotted at the small end. This points out 

 that the same pair of birds has occupied this site year after year. 



In 1889, 1892, 1893, 1895, and 1896 a second brood was reared, as I 

 found fresh eggs in the last week of June ; in each year the second nests were 

 all fives, except in 1893, when only four were laid. 



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